“The nation’s pork producers are in an uproar
after the federal government abruptly removed bacon, pork chops, pork
links, ham and all other pig products from the national menu for 206,000
federal inmates.

“The ban started with the new fiscal year last week.

“The Bureau of Prisons, which is responsible for running 122
federal penitentiaries and feeding their inmates three meals a day, said the
decision was based on a survey of prisoners’ food preferences:

“They just don’t like the taste of pork….

“The National Pork Producers Council isn’t buying it.
'I find it hard to believe that a survey would have found a majority of any
population saying, ‘No thanks, I don’t want any bacon,'” said Dave Warner,
a spokesman for the Washington-based trade association, which represents
the nation’s hog farmers.

“’In general we welcome the change because it’s
facilitating the accommodation of Muslim inmates,’ said Ibrahim Hooper, a
spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the country’s
largest Muslim civil rights advocacy group. “We hope it’s not an indication of
an increasing number of Muslims in the prison system.’”